Classroom Decorations!

I'm one of those middle school teachers that really likes to have a decorated classroom.  Now I know that 8th graders are getting older and aren't in elementary school anymore, but that doesn't mean that they should sit in a bland cookie-cutter room every day.  Plus, I spend hours in my classroom each day, and I don't want it to be bland either!  All that to say, I have been busy decorating, and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

This is the inside of the cabinet behind my desk.  It isn't technically decorating, but it is organization at its finest!  I've never had my stuff so organized at the beginning of the school year.  Clear plastic tubs - the BEST thing I've ever done.  No labels necessary since you can see right in!

This is the full-effect of the word wall that I mentioned in a previous post.  I love that it is colorful and neat, and full of good math vocabulary.  Side note:  I tried to only put up words that I will use frequently in the classroom.  Unit specific words will have their own place so that the kids aren't crazy overwhelmed by it all.

This board is my solution to the ever present "What do I do now?" questions that come from middle school students.  I tried it last year and it really worked for me.  The two folders at the bottom will be stuffed each week with special problems.  It is optional, not another assignment, and I keep the problems random and fun so the kids don't mind figuring them out.

These are two pieces of wall art that I made to break away from the traditional classroom posters.  I bought a two-pack of white canvas, painted them, and then added the magazine letters.    Easy, cheap, and they make my room more like home.

(gotta have a little math humor!)

This is where I will be writing the learning goal for each day.  I used magnet tape (best find ever!) to put it up, so if I need more room I can simply adjust the horizontal pieces to give myself more room.  Also, using bulletin board border for this was a brilliant idea.  I usually use colored masking tape to tape off a grid, but it's impossible to get straight and ends up driving me crazy.  Problem solved!

Last but not least - desks AND tables!  I love having seating options in my room.  It's amazing how good the kids will be just to earn a chance to sit at the tables!

 I finally got everything exactly how I want it - now I just need the students!  School starts Monday!

Pinterest is working for me!!!

I have to admit up front: I am not the most creative or artsy person.  I love seeing ideas and things, but I usually end up thinking something along the lines of, "yeah right" when I think of actually making something myself.  That being said, Pinterest has made me bold.  I keep seeing really cute stuff that looks do-able for someone like me!  This is great!!

That being said, I saw a "no name board" on Pinterest and thought it looked like something I could actually pull off.  And so, for less than $5, I made my very own No Name Board.  Yay!!

If you are interested in making your own, here is what I bought to make this:
$1.99 beveled white board (from Michael's)
$1.00 pink glitter clothespins (also from Michael's)
$3.00 letter stickers (you guessed it - Michael's)
Michael's always has 40% off coupons so my total ended up being less than $5!

All I did was stick on the letters, and then I used super glue to glue down the clothes pins.  SUPER easy!!

Word Wall!

I finished my Word Wall this morning.  I made the pages with words and pictures after I saw the idea on Pinterest.  You can see the original idea here.  I really liked what she had done, but I wasn't able to use all of the words.  I needed words that could span 8th grade math, Algebra 1, AND Geometry, all without being too basic or advanced for any group of students.  That being said, I decided to make my own.  I printed them off, and then my mom helped me glue each page to bright colored paper and laminate it all.  The pics are a little dark and from awkward angles, but it was the best I could do with my room in its current state of disarray.  

If you like it, you can click here to download your own copy from my TeachersPayTeachers store.   

Bulletin Board Decorating

Today I went up to my school to get a head start on decorating my classroom for this school year.  There wasn't any AC in the building today so it was HOT, but I did get quite a bit accomplished.  I got started on my new word wall, which looks really good so far.  I ran out of tape halfway through though, so that pursuit was put on hold until later.

I did manage to finish the bulletin board outside my classroom door.  I saw an idea on Pinterest that I thought would work well for me, so I went for it.  I saw the post by Counseling with Confidence, who posted a link to Entirely Elementary....School Counseling.  This blog includes pics of her bulletin board, and links print the "BE" words (already made - LOVE IT!)

Here is my finished product:

It's a little busy, but I figured that would be just right in a middle school hallway!  All I had to do was print the words, trim them up, and put them on colorful construction paper.   I like it!

Did you document that?

One of the things that I felt the least prepared for after graduating college was the world of parent contact, discipline, and documenting both.   As a first year teacher this was slightly overwhelming.  Why?  Because a large portion of the expected documentation isn't standardized for every teacher!

I heard things such as:

• Make sure you document that phone call home!
• Did you write down that intervention?
• Don't forget, four interventions is a referral!

Now don't get me wrong - I was very willing to soak up all of the advice thrown my way.  The problem was that everyone told me what to do, but not how to do it.  I finally figured out the "document" was a fancy way of saying "write that down."  I figured out that "intervention" can mean anything from a gentle request to a full out argument with a student depending on the teacher involved.  Most importantly, I figured out that in order to keep up with all of this in my own classroom I needed something to keep myself accountable.  Just remembering what happened - no way.  Putting it on the district's online discipline log - great, but still not accessible for me.  I was, as you can probably tell, a confused mess. 

Thus began what I have decided to call the "Disciple Log Saga."  

It started off as basic as it comes: a piece of paper in a binder on which to list any discipline problems or parent contact that I had for each student.  Good in theory, confusing in reality.   

My second year of teaching I borrowed an idea from a very successful teacher at my school.  I quickly learned that what was great for him simply wasn't enough for me.  He had created a table where he recorded which intervention each student was on.  Each student had a page (at least the students who earned such a page), but this method didn't have enough information available for my anal-retentive self.  

My third year of teaching things got better.  I used a pretty decent version of a discipline log, and probably would have continued to use it if I hadn't met Pinterest this summer.  You can see this log in the image below.  One row per referral, space to give brief details, what more could you need, right? 

 

Wrong.  The downfall to the above version is still a lack of space to write what really happened, as well as no way to see at a glance whether appropriate parent contact was made.  As a newly converted Pinterest junkie, I started to see tons of discipline/communication logs online.  They were all awesome, but not quite right for me.  Finally, I created a version that I think (fingers crossed) will work for me.  I saw that someone else included a space for parent contact information, so I added that to my version.  I saw a really cute elementary school version that had checkboxes for the type of contact made.  I loved the idea, but needed something a little less...cutesy.  And so, may I present to you...my Parent Communication Log for this school year.  If you like it, click the image to download your very own copy. 

I know that this version has its own shortcomings, but I think it will work for me.  I tried to finagle a way to show when the fourth intervention is reached, and thus a referral, but it just wasn't working for me.  I decided I would simply mark any consequences such as detentions or referrals under Summary of Contact.  There is also a backside to this page which is simply a continuation of the Communication Log portion.   

Interactive Notebook, Meet Math Folder

All during this summer I have been researching the idea of using an Interactive Notebook for my math classes, or at least for my honors classes.  Pinterest is full of ideas for using the interactive notebooks, but none of them really seem to fit for me.  I want something like an interactive notebook, but more conducive to my own classroom needs.  I finally settled on a compromise: this year I am going to use Math Folders in each of my classes.  This idea is a blend between the writing notebooks of my ELA friends and the interactive notebooks on my favorite math blogs.

I put a lot of thought into how to pull this off, and the first thing I decided was to provide the folders for each of my students.  Since I work in a lower income school I was worried that my students would not all have the ability to provide their own, so I did it for them.  Staples had folders on sale last week for $0.15 each, so I bought 25 purple, 25 blue, 25 yellow, and 25 green.  I thought it best to have one color per class in order to keep it more organized.

This is the cover of my folder.  I plan to let my students personalize their own at some point during the first week of school.  I'll be providing magazines from which to cut letters, as well as basic art supplies like markers and glue.

This first page in each folder will be the instructions and requirements for using the math folder.  Click on each image below to download the file for free from my TeachersPayTeachers store.

After this I'll have a page titled "How to Justify Your Answer."  I know that being able to write in math is becoming increasingly important, especially with Common Core just around the corner, so I wanted to give my students the tools they need to write well from the very beginning.  

The last pre-made item in each folder will be a Table of Contents.  This will be followed by blank notebook paper.  

I have high hopes that this will be a great start to using math folders in my classroom.  I have about two weeks to work out the kinks and get it ready for the kids, but I'm feeling confident that this will be a great addition to my classroom!

What is this "Teaching is Forever"?

I decided to start this blog mostly on a whim.  I couldn't sleep and kept thinking about the upcoming school year, so naturally I thought, "Hey, let's share all of my random thoughts with the internet!"  Now I am not so naive as to think that the entirety of the internet will read my blog.  It doesn't really matter to me if anyone reads my blog (shocking, right?)  However, I do know I'll have one reader so here's a little shout out to that guaranteed one : Hi Mom!

Enough rambling.  Now to the real nitty gritty of this blog:  I am a teacher.  It is really the best thing about me (speaking modestly).  I love what I do a solid 90% of the time, and the other 10% is dedicated to ranting and venting about what I would like to change about the 90%.  All in all, it's a good life.  I think teaching is one of the noblest professions.  You might think this is a little biased, seeing as how I am one of these noble professionals, but let me tell you a secret:  teachers are the best people I know.  

I have seen a teacher stay after school for HOURS just to tutor ONE student.  ONE.  And let me tell you, for that teacher and that one student, it was worth it.  

I have seen a teacher take the toughest kid in school and turn him into a gentleman.  Was he the top of the class?  No.  But he was kind and good hearted and dedicated to making her proud, even if meant flipping burgers instead of dealing drugs in the bathroom.  

I have seen a teacher make the nerdiest of the nerds feel special.  Was she a nerd?  Nope.  Just a teacher, dedicated to making a difference, no matter who the kid was.  

I know what you're thinking: not all teachers fall into this "noblest profession" category.  You're right.  But I choose (90% of the time at least) to look at the bright side.  Teachers make a difference.  It doesn't matter if it is big or small.  It doesn't matter if the final product doesn't happen in an instant.  Teachers make a difference, hopefully for the good, and it matters.  Big time.  Long term.  This is why I say teaching is forever.  What we do as teachers is important, not because we are important, but because the lives we impact are. 

Unrelated postscript:  I promise not every post will be a mini-rant on the awesomeness of teaching.  I promise to throw in some good-old-fashioned rants about the kids, fellow teachers, and probably even  the laws dictating what I do (even though the law makers are for the most part clueless).  I even promise to throw in some thoroughly boring examples of what I taught that day or what I wish I had done differently.  The point is, you never know what you might get, so you are reading at your own risk.  

Lucky you :-)